Order of Worship
Quest: The Awakened Traveler
Let us be as open vessels that God’s spirit may enter.
The Community Gathers: Experience God’s presence in the assembly. Please greet one another with joy and welcome new friends into our community of love.
You are welcome here…come and worship!
Focus: “Some souls just understand each other upon meeting.”
– N.R. Hart
“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
-A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
Gathering Music: From a Distance (by Julie Gold) -Michelle Currie
Welcome: We began a journey last week. For these four weeks we will be training our “traveler’s mindset” and heart and soul, expanding our horizons, our understanding, and our love for the world and its people. We focused last week on leaving home. This week we find ourselves in “The Encounter” with things that feel “far from home.”
Responsive Call to Worship:
L: For the beauty of the summer day,
All: And the comfort of friends nearby;
L: For the invitation to love and be loved,
All: For our God who extends that call;
L: For time set apart to nourish the soul,
All: For time to go out into the world filled with love:
For all these things we give thanks. Let us worship God.
Opening Hymn: For the Beauty of the Earth #14 vs. 1-4
Invocation:
Loving God who walks with us each day, we understand that your Spirit exists everywhere, on every path, inviting us to move with curiosity and compassion toward each other. Open us to the depth of our
connections even when it seems difference is so profound.
Show us our shared humanity so that we will
know what others love, see that we love the same,
and share the burdens and the love. Nudge and guide
us, we pray. Amen.
Lord’s Prayer:
Awakening: In My Life (by John Lennon/Paul McCartney) -Michelle Currie
Scripture: Psalm 146, John 4: 7-20, 25-30, 39-40
-Rev. Lamar Robinson
Sermon: Making Friends along the Way Rev. Paula Norbert
Response: Meditative Instrumental ~ Michelle Currie
Musical call to Prayer: (sung two times) Hush now in quiet peace, be still your mind at ease. The Spirit brings release, so wait upon the Lord.
Prayers of the People
Silent Prayers Pastoral Prayer
Offertory: Simple Gifts (by Joseph Brackett) -Michelle Currie
Doxology: Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise God all creatures here below. Praise God above ye heavenly hosts, Creator, Christ and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Prayer of Dedication:
Benediction:
May peace and pleasure in themselves be prayer.
And in your leisure may you hear the One
Who is your blessing and by whom you’re blest
Still calling you: Come unto me and rest.
Go forth in the peace of Christ…
Closing Hymn: All Creatures of Our God and King #15 vs. 1-4
Recessional: Go in Peace
Go in peace and the peace of God be with you this day.
Go in peace and the peace of God be with you always.
celebrate and share the joy. Celebrate new life.
Go in peace and the peace of God be with you always
Thank you to Music Director and Musician Michelle Currie.
Worship Resources: Worship Design Studios
Call To Worship by Beth Merrill Neel on her blog, ‘Hold Fast to What Is Good’. Used with permission. Benediction by Malcolm Guite.
Blessing
We are all great rivers flowing to their end.
Swirling inside us is the silt of ages and creatures and lands
and rain that has fallen for millions of years.
All this makes us cloudy with mud, unable to see God.
As we struggle for clarity and the open sky,
the Lord keeps saying the same thing:
Come to me now and be blessed,
Come. Hafiz (1320 – 1389)